Basics of Models and Schema in Node.js with Mongoose

In this section, we will learn how to structure user data using Mongoose by creating a model and schema. This will allow us to interact with MongoDB in a clean and consistent way.

✅ Step 1: Create a models Folder

Inside your src directory, create a folder named models. This folder will contain all your database models.

project-root/
└── src/
└── models/
└── User.ts

✅ Step 2: Define the User Schema and Model

Now, inside User.ts, define the schema and export the model:

// src/models/User.ts
import * as mongoose from ‘mongoose’;
const userSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
email: { type: String, required: true },
password: { type: String, required: true }
});
export default mongoose.model(‘users’, userSchema);

✅ Step 3: Using the Model in a Controller

In your UserController, you can now use this model to save users to the database.

// src/controllers/UserController.ts
import User from ‘../models/User’;
export class UserController {
static login(req, res, next) {
const { email, password } = req.body;
const user = new User({ email, password });
user.save()
.then((savedUser) => {
res.status(201).json(savedUser);
})
.catch((err) => {
// Proper error handling
const error = new Error(err.message || ‘User creation failed’);
next(error);
});
}
}

⚠️ You can also directly call next(err) without wrapping if you prefer.

✅ Step 4: Test with Postman

Now, let’s test it by sending a POST request to /api/user/login using Postman.

Request:

POST /api/user/login
Content-Type: application/json
{
“email”: “[email protected]”,
“password”: “testPassword”
}

{
“_id”: “6845623a65a6916b81f51336”,
“email”: “[email protected]”,
“password”: “testPassword”,
“__v”: 0
}

✅ MongoDB automatically generated _id and __v fields.

✅ Step 5: Verify in MongoDB

1. Login to MongoDB Atlas.

2. Navigate to your Cluster > Collections.

3. Open the users collection.

4. You will see the newly added document.

🎉 Even if the collection didn’t exist before, Mongoose creates it automatically when the first document is inserted.

✅ Summary

• We created a Mongoose schema and model for users.

• Used the model to save user data in MongoDB.

• Handled database errors cleanly with try/catch or promise.catch.

• Verified successful insertion via Postman and MongoDB Atlas.